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Game Progression (or: getting into Nightmare)
For many people, starting Nightmare can be a real problem. There's no (apparently) clear progression path, and it can be hard to move from Insane to Nightmare. This guide should help you a little in doing that. What is Nightmare? First things first. What is nightmare? It's the level above insane, and unlike the ramp from hard to insane, the ramp from insane to nightmare is brutal. You'll be playing against all the regular monster types, but in addition, each mob from the eternia shards will be present on every map (spiders, djinn, sharken, Goblin Copter). When am I ready for Nightmare? You are ready when you have played through the entire campaign on Insane, including the shards maps. In addition, if you're really serious about nightmare, then you should know it's going to be extremely hard to solo with a single character. If you play solo, you will eventually need to level one of each of apprentice, squire, hunter and monk. In addition, an EV and summoner is strongly recommended. It's not essential, but will make your life much, much easier. You will need the towers from each character at some point, and each of the characters should be level 74, or close to 74 (so that they can equip mythical gear). If you don't play solo, then make sure your group has all 4/5 builders covered. How do I break into Nightmare? A common complaint is that you need mythical gear to beat Nightmare, but you can only get Mythical gear from Nightmare. This isn't true. Insane survival drops mythical gear after wave 15, and more frequently after wave 20. Survival So, yes. You're going to need to start working on Survival mode. Start with Alchemical Laboratory survival on insane (ensure hardcore mode is activated), and see how far you get. If you make wave 20+, then try Ramparts or Summit. If you can clear those, try Mistymire or Moraggo , and so on. This will start to give you decent equipment (and, importantly, Pets) for your characters, and once you have a full set of matching equipment that is starting to get upgraded, you're ready to try out Nightmare. Challenges Survival isn't the only way to get myth gear. The next most common are challenges. Some of these can be completed at nightmare level with very low stats, for example, Ogre Crush and Raining Goblins. The rewards from these challenges are sometimes incredibly powerful weapons, which can help you get an edge. Others Monster Fests - These are timed challenges with no crystals. Mythical gear can drop in the end waves of insane difficulty. City in the Cliffs (campaign mode hard difficulty) - reward is two pieces of low level Mythical gear What stats do I need for Nightmare? There is no hard requirement for nightmare stats. That being said, a full set of starter Mythical armour, accessories, weapon and pet that are fully upgraded should see you with stats around 500-700 to the key skills. What are the key skills? You should know this by now. If not, check other guides for more information. Generally speaking, builders want high tower stats and DPS characters want high hero health and hero damage. There are many nuances to this, though. While there is a little more detail later on in this guide, you should consult character-specific guides for more information. What should I be aware of for Nightmare? YOU NEED TO UGPRADE YOUR EQUIPMENT. It's possible you've completed insane without ever investing mana in your equipment. That time is now over. You need to now start investing heavily in your gear. Set Bonuses If you don't know what these are, I recommend reading this entire page. Suffice to say that a matching set of arrmour types (all leather, all pristine, etc.) will give you a bonus. The amount of bonus depends on the item quality. More information is available on the armour page. What do I upgrade? *For active builders (squire/app), invest in resistance and then tower stats. *For inactive builders (monk/trapper), just invest in the tower stats. *For DPS characters, resists, then Hero HP and Hero Damage in equal measures. *For all characters, make sure your speed and cast rate is not gimped. *It cannot be stressed enough that any character who will see the combat phase in Nightmare MUST have at least their generic resistance upgraded as high as possible. Otherwise you will be dead. Where can I find builds for insane and nightmare? Rather than linking directly to build which may be outdated as new content is released, here are some links to sources of builds. The pc console guide forums will generally have the most up to date builds, along with recommended stats, and have a range of low to high stat requirements. ddplanner.com has a great search function which will let you browse for different builds at different difficulty levels. More reading Zaxvax started a single player mission to advance into nightmare. You can read it here. It's long, but highly recommended. http://forums.trendyent.com/showthread.php?55484-Guide-Journal-Forever-alone-from-lvl-1-to-endgame. Category:Guides Category:Guides